Hello Friends and Family,

As she stated in her last update, Sharmi has been very busy playing lately, so I am going to try to help keep everyone updated.

So far Sharmalia has been doing well with the new daily chemo drugs.  I did however, switch the time of day that I am giving it.  I was giving it to her in the evening and it seemed to be disrupting her sleep. She would wake up at least once an hour and cry out in discomfort, pain or fear. This of course makes me very tired also, as she has not gone back into her own bed since this all began.  (She has learned that having cancer has been her ticket to get away with most anything.) It is yet to be determined whether this helps or not, but I am praying that it does.

Saturday she began walking on her own again.  It began with just a few steps but now she can get around the main floor of the house pretty well. However, she tires quickly and wants to hold mommy or grandma’s hand.  As she already told you, she picked up the lamb’s offering at church on Sabbath with the support of daddy.  I of course cried tears of joy to see her walking again.  She did really great, but by the end she couldn’t take the one last step to put the money in the church. She collapsed into daddy and he had to help her finish.

Yesterday was her Birthday. Dean spent most of the day with us before flying back to Seattle. We spent many hours at the Zoo naming all of the animals. We saw our first wombat in real life. She has seen them on her videos’ so when I asked them what they were she shouted out “wombat.” I of course was impressed. I personally was amazed at how huge they are! They look much smaller on “Baby Einstein.” She had a great time, but it was her first real play day since this began, and she was exhausted. She feel asleep before her “birthday ice cream cone” and she didn’t wake up until four hours later. (Her longest nap of her life!)

Today we took her to physical therapy and Tammy the therapist was very pleased with her progress.  We have been concerned that her poor mechanics (walking on heals, hyper extending her knees & and poor balance) might be long term problems, but the therapist believes that they are due to lack of strength. We are very grateful to hear that.

Tomorrow is procedure day again. We all hate these days. I am sick to my stomach a day in advance every time just thinking about having to put Sharmi through it again. She hates not being able to eat. It is impossible to explain it to a 2 year old why she can’t have “Crackers” (crackers are her favorite) or any other food. Tomorrow she will be receiving the Chemo in her spine, they will check her blood levels and I believe that she will also get an IV drip to help deal with the side effects.

I can’t express how grateful Dean and I are for all of you and all of the support and prayers that we have received from you during this painful journey. We feel so blessed to have your love and the power of your prayers. Thank you.

Cheris